Back!

So, a great big hello to the four of you diligently checking every day I was gone on vacation. The clicks, they make me feel loved. Anyway, as the rest of you may or may not know, first I was back home in California for a few days around Christmas, and then I was in Frankfurt for two days to celebrate New Year's Eve, and then I was in a cabin in the Swiss Alps, along with Dina, The Pit, two of my favorite OC residents, my German friend Raphael, and a whole mass of other Germans I'd never previously met. The Swiss Alps! Like someone rich and famous!*

The vacation, it was awesome. Highlights:

• Knowing I was home for sure, when my first morning back in Fremont, Dina came out of her room stark naked, hair tousled, and very excited, yelling "I downloaded a metal detector to my phone!"
• Seeing my family and both sides of The Pit's family in several whirlwind days, and feeling so warm and loved wherever we happened to be.
• German New Year's Eve food, consisting of little plate things you fill with meats and veggies, then cover with cheese, then grill at the table. Genius!

• Standing on the roof of an apartment building in Frankfurt, watching the official firework displays around the city, and then seeing thousands of unofficial fireworks go up at the stroke of midnight. Being amazed as the unofficial fireworks continued for the next hour, with rockets illegal in all but the most redneck parts of the United States. Those Germans, they take fireworks seriously.

• In the backseat with Dina and Cat, laughing hysterically every time we passed an Ausfahrt sign. Dina constantly yelling the...impolite...German name for Austrians, which happened to be the very first German word Raphael and company taught us upon entering the country.
• Giant German schnitzel, to all appearances made out of half a pig. Watching each of the boys eat said schnitzel and actually finish. Meat: another thing the Germans take very seriously.

• The magical view when we finally got to our cabin in the Alps.

• More views from the slopes, each better than the last. Hoping that the rest of the group really enjoyed the views as they waited for me to shuffle step down the expert slope I was dragged to.
• Documenting my friends, to all appearances a little insane from too much skiing and too little sleep, running back and forth from the sauna to the snow, howling the entire way.

• The cutest picture of them all.

• Fondue for The Pit's birthday, and never ending arguments about the foulness vs. goodness of mushrooms.
• Our tour through Geneva, complete with yet more magical views, delicious crepes, roasted chestnuts, snowball fights, giant chess, and a lady walking a cat.

---

* Although someone rich and famous would probably be a much better skier. It's a good thing Cat was skiing on a recently broken ankle, or I would have been left to fend for myself on the slopes.